REPORT: Landlords protest outside museum, tenants voice gratitude in Riad al-Solh

Long-time landlords staged Wednesday a sit-in outside the National Museum and blocked the road with burning tires, to protest against the appeal presented against the new rent law.

The landlords said that President Michel Sleiman is no longer concerned with the injustice practiced against the property owners, noting that appealing the new rent law will lead to a disaster.

“We will not accept this situation, our buildings are occupied and seized,” the protesters added.Meanwhile, old tenants gathered in Riad al-Solh Square to thank the president for appealing the new rent law.

The landlords have been staging several movements over the past month to urge the concerned parties to sign the new law, while old tenants have been staging protests to voice their rejection to the new rent law proposed by parliament.

Last month, lawmakers passed a controversial draft rent law rejected by old tenants. Under the new law, rents regulated by the old rent law would increase over six years until they reach 5 percent of the current market value of an apartment.

More than 200,000 apartments, mostly in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, are estimated to be rented under the old law, which governs lease contracts enacted before 1992.

Inhabitants pay minimal rent fees that often amount to less than LL1,000,000 a year – a remnant of the country’s preinflation days just after the Civil War.Longtime tenants argue that the draft law would displace thousands of families.